In the construction of buildings, outdoor structures or the like, it is often desirable to utilize a beam or column which includes a plurality of boards, rather than an integral post made from a single piece of building material such as wood. Many embodiments of composite assemblies use one or more connectors to connect the plurality of component boards into the composite assembly. The composite assembly made from a plurality of boards can serve as a less expensive substitute for integral posts made from a single piece of wood, which can be quite expensive. It is not uncommon for building materials to increase exponentially in cost for every increase in length or width of the building material piece.
It is known to provide a composite assembly comprised of a series of elongated layers secured together lengthwise thereof with each layer including an upper elongated support member joined to a lower elongated ground-engaging member at a joint by a connector device. In such a composite assembly, the upper elongated member is normally constructed of a non-treated wood, and the lower elongated member is typically fabricated of a treated wood. Such treated wood is infused with a chemical, such as chromated copper arsenate (CCA), to prevent the natural process of decay of the ground-engaging wood. While such a composite assembly is acceptable in commercial building application, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has banned the use of wood as used in the ground-engaging lower portion of the composite assembly for most residential use.